Same content, same strategies; just more ways to get it into your hands (and your classroom).

Quick tip: Infographics are great to post by your desk in the classroom or embed in plans for a quick reference! We threw all of our ideas into AI and it created this image for us that you can use too:

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Picking a protocol is the easy part. The reason a protocol thrives in one classroom and falls apart in another almost always comes down to how it was taught the first time.

Below are five protocols we use constantly in small group math: Sum It Up, Esti-Mystery, the Three Reads Protocol, Which One Doesn’t Belong, and 3 Act Tasks, along with exactly how to introduce each one so it actually sticks.

Our last blog was about building small groups that run themselves. This is what to read BEFORE this post, as it will explicitly teach you how to run the groups.

Before You Teach Any Protocol

Every protocol below should be introduced the same way, regardless of which one you’re starting with:

• Choose one a week (ish). Start at the beginning of the year if you can, and begin with an easy task. You can introduce it to the whole group or small group. (We prefer whole group at first— everyone gets the same directions at the same time).

• Be explicit. Name the protocol, explain why you’re using it, model when and how to use it, then let kids practice.

• Make it visual. A poster, a mini-chart, or the sentence stems themselves should live right in the small group area.

• Hold kids accountable. Monitor closely at first, circle back to it during reflection or debrief time, and have them reference it in their own math talk or writing.

With that foundation in place, here’s how each protocol works:

Sum It Up

What it is: A self-checking group activity built around a shared answer.

How it runs: Each student in the group solves their own math problem (each student gets a different one in their corner of a piece of paper). Once everyone’s finished, the group adds up all four individual answers. That total should match a final sum already written ahead of time (by the teacher) in the middle of the poster. If it doesn’t match, the group knows immediately there’s an error somewhere and their job is to find it.

Works best for: Groups of 4

Materials: Pencil, large paper (one per group), four math problems written on each corner the chart facing the student, and a marker

How to set it up the first time:

• Model the activity and establish norms before handing it to groups independently

• Think through the tiny details that need explicit teaching: where to write, how to signal “done,” what to do if the sum doesn’t match

• Decide ahead of time: homogeneous or heterogeneous groups for this one?

• Have a plan for what happens when the sum doesn’t match (this is actually the best part of the protocol, so don’t let groups skip the troubleshooting)

Why it works: The protocol builds in its own accountability. Nobody needs to hover and check answers in real time. The group finds out immediately whether they’re right, and the “find the error” step does more for number sense than a correct answer on the first try ever could.

*You can make these yourself using large paper! If you want the work already done for you with vetted word problems, check it out here! As of the original date of this post, we mostly have fourth grade Sum It Up’s available, but keep checking back for more grade levels— we’re constantly adding more, they just take a while to create and vet. :)

Esti-Mystery

What it is: A collaborative estimation game built around one mystery number and a series of revealed clues. You can find free Esti-Mysteries on Steve Wyborney’s blog.

How it runs: One student in the group drives the slides in Slideshow Mode— nobody else clicks. (This is the small group protocol, read below for how to set it up and model it with the whole group). As each new clue is revealed, the group updates their guess, using reasoning rather than random number picking. Every guess gets recorded on students’ worksheet and a hundreds chart (one per student here too) helps the group visually narrow their thinking round by round. After five guesses and a round of accountable talk following each clue, the group commits to a final answer.

Works best for: Any size group

Materials: Pencil, Esti-Mystery recording sheet, hundreds chart

How to set it up the first time:

• Run several rounds whole group and teacher-led before ever putting this in a student-led small group

• Assign a group leader ahead of time. Naming who drives the slideshow before you start cuts down on “who gets to click” arguments and gives you an easy way to rotate leadership roles across groups over time. The leader needs to be explicitly taught how to run the slideshow, wait until everyone has their guess in before moving on, and provoke conversation rather than just clicking through. Give leaders sentence stems to help them do this well.

• End every round with a Glow and Grow reflection: one thing that went well cooperating, one thing to improve next time

Leader Sentence Stems:

• “Here’s clue number ___. Take a look.”

• “Give me a thumbs up when you’ve got a guess written down.”

• “Turn and tell your group why you guessed that.”

• “Does anyone want to change their guess? Why?”

• “What clue helped you the most so far?”

• “Let’s lock in our group’s final answer. What are we going with, and why?”

Glow and Grow Sentence Stems:

• “One thing that went well in our group today was ___.”

• “Something we could do better next time is ___.”

• “I noticed ___ did a great job of ___.”

• “Next time, I want to try ___.”

Why it works: Low floor, high ceiling, and a purposeful worksheet. Every clue forces the group to revise their thinking out loud— this builds number sense! On top of that, the reasoning narrows with each guess and it gives every student, not just the fast finishers, a real reason to talk math. We have a bundle which includes all materials you will need for this protocol.

The Three Reads Protocol

What it is: A structured way to read a word problem three separate times, each time with a different purpose, before ever attempting to solve it.

How it runs:

READ: Read for context and visualize. Ignore the numbers completely; build a mental model instead. What do you picture? What’s the story happening here? What is this problem actually about? Read silently, or have one partner read aloud while the whole group shares what they picture.

PLAN: Read to understand the quantities. Now focus on the numbers. What are they, and how do they relate to each other? What patterns show up? What do we already know, and what do we still need to find out? A different partner reads this time, and the group shares ideas together.

COMPLETE: Read to determine what math question needs answering. Identify the unknown. What are we actually trying to find? What strategies might work? What’s worked on problems like this before? A third partner reads aloud, and the group begins working the problem, talking through strategies out loud as they go.

Works best for: Any size group, and it’s especially effective for high-leverage tasks where the reasoning matters as much as the answer.

Materials: Pencil, one copy of the word problem or task per student

How to set it up the first time:

• Model the activity and establish norms before releasing it to groups

• Decide which parts of the protocol students will find easy versus difficult. The “ignore the numbers” step in Read 1 is often the hardest to enforce, since kids want to jump straight to computing

• Think through scaffolds in advance, and whether this works better with homogeneous or heterogeneous groups for your class

Why it works: Immediate feedback from intentionally designed peer interaction helps students revise not just how they organize and communicate their own ideas, but how they ask questions to clarify their understanding of others’ thinking. Separating “understand the story” from “understand the numbers” from “solve the problem” stops the rush to calculate before comprehension actually happens.

Which One Doesn’t Belong?

What it is: A discourse-first protocol where there’s no single right answer— every option can belong depending on the reasoning.

How it runs: Present four numbers, shapes, equations, expressions, or symbols. Students choose one that doesn’t belong and justify why, using a “because” statement (for example: the one that doesn’t belong is 23, because 27, 18, and 54 are all multiples of 9 and 23 is not). Once students are comfortable with the routine, have them create their own WODB sets using numbers, shapes, equations, or symbols.

Works best for: At least 2 students

Materials: Pencil, paper

How to set it up the first time:

• Model the activity and establish norms before releasing it

• Think through which parts of the protocol will come easily to your students and which parts (usually articulating the “because”) will need more explicit modeling

• Consider scaffolds like sentence stems for the justification piece, especially early on

Why it works: Because there’s no single correct answer, every student has a legitimate way into the conversation. This is one of the lowest-floor, highest-ceiling protocols out there and it’s genuinely fun for kids to argue their reasoning.

Click here for the Which One Doesn’t Belong? website where you can get a ton of examples completely FREE!

3 Act Tasks

What it is: A three-part video and image-based task structure that builds a real math question out of a real-world scenario

How it runs:

Act 1: Students view the first video (can be watched multiple times) and complete Act 1 on the recording sheet. This is where the group generates the Main Question themselves. They also estimate a number that’s too low and a number that’s too high before doing any math.

Act 2: Students view the accompanying image(s) and complete Act 2, digging into the information needed to actually solve the question they generated.

Act 3: Students watch the final video, which reveals the result, and complete Act 3, comparing their answer to the actual outcome and reflecting on whether their answer was reasonable.

Works best for: Any size group

Materials: Pencil, 3 Act Task recording sheet

How to set it up the first time:

• Model the activity and establish norms before releasing it to groups

• Think through which parts of the protocol will be tricky the first time. Generating their own Main Question in Act 1 is usually the biggest shift for students used to being handed a question (you may want to have the Main Question identified for yourself ahead of time to use as a reference— at the very least, definitely go through the tasks yourself ahead of time to know if it’s a good fit for your students)

• Decide on scaffolds in advance, and whether homogeneous or heterogeneous groups make sense for your class

• If you’re assigning tasks digitally, keep a dedicated topic or folder (like “3 Act Tasks”) so the videos and images stay organized and easy to reuse

Where to find tasks: You don’t have to build these from scratch. There are excellent free 3 Act Task libraries out there, including collections from Graham Fletcher (K-7), Kristin Acosta (K-6), Kendra Lomax (K-2), Catherine Castillo (K-5), Chad Williams (grades 1-3), and Andrew Gael (grades 1-7). Save the title, standard(s) addressed, and link for each task you use in a shared Doc so your team can find them again next year!

Why it works: Letting students generate their own question in Act 1 changes their relationship to the problem entirely. They’re not solving someone else’s question, they’re solving their own. The low-to-high estimate before any math happens also builds number sense and gives every student, regardless of skill level, an easy entry point.

Here is 3 Act Task we love: https://gfletchy.com/the-pringle-ringle/

A Reflection Template That Works Across All Five

Regardless of which protocol you use, the same six reflection questions work well as a closer:

1. How did talking about mathematics help your group understand the problem?

2. What strategies did you see that helped you understand a different way to solve the problem?

3. If you were given 5 more minutes, what might you change about your poster to improve it?

4. Did you see any common strategies? Why do you think so many groups used the same one?

5. What advice would you give yourselves as a group to improve for next time?

6. What advice would you give another group to help them be more successful?

Have groups pick just one question to answer rather than all six. It keeps the reflection focused instead of turning into busywork.

No time to build your own? Our pre-made reflection sheets are already differentiated and high-level — just print and go!

This is how we love to organize them, so when we need them, we just grab and use:

The Bottom Line

None of these protocols need you standing at the table to run. Sum It Up checks itself. Esti-Mystery has a built-in group leader. Three Reads has a clear sequence groups can follow independently. Which One Doesn’t Belong just needs two students and a “because” statement. 3 Act Tasks hands the question-generating over to the group entirely. The real work is in that first week of explicit teaching (of each protocol). After that, the protocol does the heavy lifting. If done right (and sometimes even if it isn’t), your students will love small math groups. And the best part? They’re talking about math. Goosebumps.

Happy small grouping!

🩷Kate & Emily

Small groups don’t typically fail because the protocol is wrong. They fail because the system around the protocol was never built properly.

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*This blog post is long and has several components, so we wanted to give you an idea about the content before we dig in.

Part 1- Language we use throughout the blog

Part 2- Why small groups are important

Part 3- How to implement small group instruction- what to do before, during, and after

Part 4- How to run small groups effectively and efficiently when the teacher is working with a different group.

Part 5- How to teach/implement a protocol effectively

PART 1 - Understanding the Language

Before we continue, we want to clarify some of the language that we’ll be using in this post:

• Math Workshop: A student-centered approach to math instruction that includes a balance of whole/large group instruction, small group instruction and independent work. There are many models of Math Workshop, however, no matter what model you use, the common theme throughout is having student discourse, collaboration, and small groups.

• Routines (and procedures): Routines are your predictable structures. They are the WHAT that leads to strong mathematical practices and thinking. Procedures are the HOW they’ll do these structures. Students know at a certain time each day or after a certain part of the lesson they’ll be engaging in particular structures. They know where to go, where to look at to know what they’ll be doing, when and how to get their materials, how to act & talk with each other, how long to be there, when to switch, what noise level to be at, etc. For example, a routine within your Math Workshop might be that students meet at the back table to participate in a protocol at a specific time. Then at the 15 minute mark they pick up and move to the independent part of Math Workshop.

• Protocol: A specific activity that follows specific steps within your routine. Protocols could be something like Sum It Up, Three Reads, Chalk Talk or a peer feedback protocol. They’re just steps students perform but linked to a specific activity you want them to do.

• Task: This is the work or the problems you change within the protocol. For example, if using a Sum It Up protocol, the problems you give to students that are less math-ready will be different from problems you give to your enrichment group that you want to challenge further. The protocol stayed the same, but the task changed based on the group.

Now that we’ve clarified some of our language, we’ll be able to move into how to think about small group math instruction– why it matters, what phase most teachers skip, and how to build groups that can actually function without you standing there constantly monitoring.

Part 2 - Small Groups Aren’t a Replacement for Math Lessons, They’re Reinforcement

Let’s start with the obvious pushback: “I don’t have time for small groups on top of everything else.”

Small groups aren’t meant to replace whole/large group instruction. A balance of both is what actually moves kids forward. Here’s what small groups make possible at a higher rate:

• Targeting specific needs– meeting kids where they are, not where the class average is

• Differentiating in real time (most math curriculums are designed to teach to the middle of the road)

• Ensuring enough practice for skills that need more reps than what whole group allows

• Immediate, direct feedback– catching a misconception before it turns into a habit & giving the structure and space for teachers to provide this feedback at a higher rate than what’s typically possible within whole group instruction

• Strengthening the impact of whole-class instruction– small groups don’t compete with your Tier 1 teaching, they reinforce it

If you’re teaching your math lesson whole group the entire time, here are some problems that are probably familiar to you:

• For lessons where your lecture goes too long, students begin getting antsy and you start losing their attention. You scramble to bring them back and help them stay focused and on task. The rest of your lecture time is broken up by trying to re-engage students. You really don’t have that long to get your point across without embedding interactive structures. Check out our blog post about the MINUTES (yes, you heard that right… minutes) you have before losing students’ attention and how to give yourself extra time.

• Maybe you got past the lesson part and now you’re sending students off to work on something independently. Now you have some students that need a ton of help and some that are done within a few minutes. You’re busy supporting students while the other group wonders what they’re supposed to be doing next. The class starts getting loud, students are distracted, and now you’re busy managing noise levels and behaviors that arise or scrambling to give your early-finishers something to do to keep them busy and relatively quiet. Maybe you’ve planned for students finishing early and you’ve created early-finisher tasks, a menu of activities they can choose from or you’ve developed a “must do/may do” list. These tend to be more independent work, sometimes not even math related, and oftentimes we still have to encourage students to initiate and stay on task.

• You have many students that need support. You find yourself repeating your same advice or addressing the same misconceptions. The students that are stuck stop doing any work until you reach them, but you’re one person. They’re 20 or 25 or 30 people and conferencing 1:1 is just not fast enough to reach all of them. Behaviors and noise levels arise.

• You have several students lined up at your desk ready for you to check their work. You lectured, you gave them independent work, but now they need to be checked. Again, everywhere else in the classroom, noise levels and behaviors arise because you’re busy checking work one by one. The students waiting in line are also losing precious minutes in math. You’re busy supporting your students 1:1 and constantly interrupting this support to manage the students away from you.

Small groups solve these problems because they give your students purposeful, appropriately-challenging work that helps them stay involved in discourse and mathematical thinking while they’re away from you. Small groups that you pull maximize your instructional time by helping you target 4-6 of the students you would have been meeting with 1:1 (to repeat the same statements). You’re also able to check more work at once between the group you work with or the groups you monitor that were working away from you. Finally, differentiating the level of challenge for groups of students is made easy when small groups are in place.

Need more evidence for why small groups are important? Check out New York State Educational Department’s PK-12 Numeracy Briefs #4, High-Leverage Instructional Practices: setting up and managing small group work. It isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a NEED-to-have, and across all grade levels, PK-12. Setting up and managing small group work includes choosing tasks that require collaboration, building procedures for how students work in groups, and selectively choosing which groups the teacher meets with and when. If you’re looking for more guidance on how to do this, check out our free resource to get you started.

Part 3 - The Framework: Before, During, After

If your groups are falling apart, it’s worth checking which of these three phases is actually in need of repair.

BEFORE: Establish the Routine First

This is the phase that’s easiest to fast-forward, but it’s the one that matters most. Without this phase, the protocols, discussions, collaboration, and whatever else, will fall apart. Before you even pull a small group, your classroom needs to have and know:

• A daily schedule that’s predictable (your overall routines are set)

• An organized physical space, including materials and manipulatives they may need to use, not just where they’ll meet

• A quiet or attention signal for you to be able to grab their attention quickly

• A noise level chart with kids knowing exactly what noise level to be at depending on the station (e.g. a digital station may be at a 0, but a collaboration station may be at a 2)

• Smooth transitions (When do we move? How do we move? Where do we move?)

• Clear independent work expectations (Students working away from small group instruction should be able to hold their own so that small groups can happen)

• Clear group work expectations (Who do I work with? What if we disagree? How do we get back on task? What if I need to use the bathroom? What if I need a break?)

• Accountable talk (if you teach multiple subjects, pick and practice sentence stems that students can use across the day– read our blog post about accountable talk or get our accountable talk posters we use in our room)

• “Three Before Me” and problem-solving strategies for what to do when they’re stuck or come to a disagreement

• Planned accountability

• Math norms (click here for our free math norm posters)

• Self-reflection practices (Use language like “glow” and “grow” the whole year or build in the practice of identifying what’s going well and what needs improvement– see the math reflection pages we build in our classroom)

If these are missing, no protocol, however well-designed, will hold up under real classroom conditions.

DURING: Know Your Instructional Purpose

Before you call a group over, ask yourself:

• Why am I having this group gather? What does this group actually need based on the evidence?

• What kind of support do they need right now?

  • Am I reteaching what I just taught through more visuals, manipulatives, vocabulary work, easier numbers, new contexts, etc.? Am I reinforcing concepts with more practice to solidify what they just learned? Am I challenging students further, that are showing mastery of the concept, by adding complexity to the concepts taught in class?

• What resources best support that need?

  • What protocol, manipulatives, or task will work best to address these needs?

Some protocols may fit better than others depending on how you answer these questions. You may also choose a protocol and change the task within it– it all depends on what your students need! See our free small group resource to help you with planning.

During any point of instruction, immediate feedback is key. When establishing small groups, in the beginning your feedback will focus on the habits and behaviors you and your students are seeing (both positives and things to improve). Later, once small groups have been established, your feedback will be based on mathematical thinking, addressing misconceptions and connecting ideas.

AFTER: Build in Reflection, Every Time

The after phase is where the real learning about your teaching happens. It also doesn’t just help students close their minds from the lesson but it helps hold students accountable for their learning and behavior from the rest of the math time.

If you have exit tickets that align with your math curriculum, great! You can assess their mathematical understanding on whatever skill, content or standard you taught that day. If you want students to reflect on a specific behavior or habit, awesome! You can hold them accountable for their behaviors and give feedback based on their responses (check out this free small group reflection sheet). If you’re usually feeling lost in this area though, we have a simple resource you can use. This math reflection pack are strong questions that push mathematical thinking and habits that you can use after any math lesson. Print these out in bulk to have on hand so you can grab-and-go (and read our blog post on debriefs– part 1 & part 2 to learn more about using these questions in your debriefs).

This is how we use these in our classroom! Simple and functional!

Here are a few prompts worth keeping on hand:

• How did talking about mathematics help your group understand the problem?

• What strategies did you see that helped you understand a different way to solve the problem?

• Did you notice any common strategies? Why do you think so many groups used the same one?

• What advice would you give yourselves for next time?

This last question (above) matters as much for you as it does for your students. This gives you information on what contributed to a students’ success or struggle. It has students identifying something worth changing and then explaining and justifying that process and it gives you an idea of the misconceptions that may be happening in the classroom or what habits/behaviors to address. For example, if students say:

• “We should have listened to each others’ ideas first” → this means collaboration needs more support

• “We should have drawn a picture before using numbers” → this means the students are starting to make the connection with how valuable models and representations are

• “We need to think about if our answer makes sense” → this shows mathematical reasoning, but you may still want to build in more think alouds and modeling of assessing reasonableness and/or additional activities were students have to assess their reasonableness to be successful (part 2 of this blog post will provide more ideas of small group protocols that help do this!)

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Part 4 - Building Groups That Run Without You

Here’s a question that often comes up: what happens when you’re with another group at a different table? How can the group away from you function?

If a group needs you physically present to function, it’s not a student-led, collaborative small group that can run on protocols– it’s a teacher-led lesson. Sometimes this does become a natural consequence: “If you can’t work together and act appropriately, you will be working independently until I’m ready to re-teach (and have you practice) how to function as a collaborative small group.” Most of us however, want to be able to have high-functioning small groups running independently away from us so that we can work with other students and groups as needed.

To get to the point of having small groups run independently, we like to start with having students be able to function completely on their own first. A rule of thumb is, if the class can’t function independently (completely on their own) while you do other things, your class is not ready to move onto building small groups. If your class is able to work independently, you may be able to start working toward small groups.

Here are a few ways to build independence with small groups:

• Model, model, model & practice, practice, practice. If your students have no image or idea of what a high-functioning small group should look like and sound like, then moving on to practice is pointless. Model EVERYTHING first– this is more than just telling students what you want them to do. Think of a soccer coach when you first learn how to play soccer. If they only recount the steps and verbally tell you what to do, you’ll never understand the skill they’re talking about or how to do it. Model everything by yourself at first, then with a student, and finally with a small group. Always have students provide feedback on what went well and what didn’t. Once you think students have a clear idea and there are no questions, begin practicing by having all students do what you just showed them. Consider having written out steps, visuals and norms of what your expectations are.

• Set up “Three Before Me” as a norm. Before a student interrupts you at another table, they check three things or three people first. This has to be taught and practiced — not just posted on a wall. Consider using these posters, sign-in sheets and stop signs to pause students before interrupting you.

• Choose protocols that are self-checking by design. Take Sum It Up: each student in a group of four solves their own problem, then the group adds up all four answers to see if the total matches the sum already printed on the poster. If it doesn’t match, the group already knows there’s an error to find — no teacher needed to catch the mistake. The protocol itself builds in accountability. Consider having a Help Station or Help Envelope where students can get extra help (e.g. hints, steps, an answer key, etc.) before they come to you. Store these in a way you can keep pulling them out year after year. Click here for a free 4th grade version you can test out. (More will be coming out for grades 3-6!)

• Keep the “how” visible, not memorized. A visual anchor chart or sentence stems at the small group table means the routine lives on the table, not in your head (or theirs). Kids can reference it without tracking you down. Move any anchor charts you used during the lesson to the area of the room you want students to reference the information.

• Give them a recording sheet. Accountability shouldn’t depend on you watching in real time. A simple recording sheet– guesses, work shown, final answer, a short reflection– lets you check for understanding after the fact.

Part 5 - Teaching the Protocol Itself (Not Just Assigning It)

A protocol only works if it’s actually taught, not just handed to students.

• Choose one protocol a week. Start at the beginning of the year, keep a visible chart of the protocols you want to teach this year, and cross them off as you introduce them. Start with an easy task within that protocol. Our favorite way to teach is to model the protocol whole group first and then send students off to practice in small groups. Never allow students to pick their own small groups. Have names ready to go or use our partner cards to have random groups but eliminate the precious minutes wasted trying to find partners and small groups.

• Be explicit. Name the protocol, explain why we’re using it, model when and how to use it, then have kids practice. Break down each step and allow students to provide feedback for strengths and improvements heavily when first teaching.

• Make it visual. Posters, mini-charts, or the sentence stem itself– keep it right in the small group area where they’ll be participating in these protocols.

• Hold kids accountable. Monitor heavily at first, circle back during reflection/debrief time, and have them use it in their own writing or talk. Focus on their behaviors and the process of the protocol first, only moving on to talking about the math once you know students have mastered the behaviors of the protocol.

The Bottom Line

Small group math instruction isn’t about finding the perfect activity — it’s about building a system: routines established before, a clear purpose during, honest reflection after, and protocols designed so the group doesn’t need you standing over them for it to work. Get the system right, and almost any protocol will work inside it. Skip the system, and even the best-designed protocol will struggle.

Looking for protocols already built with self-checking structures and clear teacher/student roles? Check out our ready-to-use routines like Sum It Up and companion guide for Esti-Mystery, plus the planning tools to set up the “before” phase in your own classroom— all in our store. Be on the lookout for blog posts about specific protocols we like to use— coming soon!

Happy small grouping!

🩷 Kate & Emily

That’s it.

You sit there blinking. How do you think it went? What does she mean HOW DO YOU THINK IT WENT? You’re not the dental expert, she is! You paid for her trained eye, her tools, her expertise in cleaning teeth, her twenty years of catching things you’d never notice on your own.

You want to know everything! Did the flossing help? Is that spot on my lower molar getting better or worse? Should I change anything? Instead, you got a vague, open-ended question tossed back at you, and now you’re left doing the work she was supposed to do.

Was that better than nothing at all? A little. But it still missed the point.

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Now picture that same math workshop time from “Debrief Part 1” of this blog. This time, the teacher does remember to gather students for the debrief. The timer has been set, students are on the rug, and materials are ready. Success!

But then she asks:

“So, how did that feel today?” or “How did things go?”

Silence. A few shrugs. One brave student says “good,” and that’s the end of it.

Or maybe she asks a more specific question, but it’s the same student every time who answers– the one with their hand up first, the one who always has the right words ready. The other twenty-four students nod along, but did they actually think about anything? Did the debrief change what they understood, or did it just confirm what that one kid already knew?

Here’s what every teacher has felt in that moment: What should I actually ask? And who should I call on to answer it?

Let’s break down a few debrief attempts and see what’s missing.

ATTEMPT A: “Does everyone understand?” A room full of nods. Nobody actually processes the question. The kids who understand nod because they understand. The kids who don’t understand nod because they don’t want to be the one who says so out loud. The teacher walks away thinking the debrief happened. It didn’t.

ATTEMPT B: “Who wants to share?” The same three hands go up, every single day. The teacher picks one, that student shares a beautiful strategy, and the debrief is technically over. But what about the twenty-two misconceptions that walked right out the door with the rest of the class?

ATTEMPT C: “Turn and talk about what you learned today.” Great start! But without a follow-up, without the teacher circulating to actually hear what’s said, this can become social time disguised as a debrief. Nothing gets surfaced to the whole group. Nothing gets corrected. Nothing gets celebrated in front of everyone.

In all three, can you figure out what’s missing?

The Purpose. The Intention. The Precision.

A debrief question isn’t just a question– it’s a tool. Like any tool, it only works if you pick the right one for the job. A hammer doesn’t help you with a screw. A “does everyone understand?” doesn’t help you surface a misconception you actually saw happen twenty minutes ago.

The same goes for who answers. Using popsicle sticks isn’t mean– it’s mathematical accountability. Turn and talks aren’t filler– they’re rehearsal before the real share-out. Every choice you make about who talks and what they’re asked either deepens the math or lets it slide right by. **We want to add a disclaimer to these specific moves though: if you cold call or even pull popsicle sticks (which is just a random cold call), we encourage you to allow students to pass. This will alleviate the anxiety that students may have when expected to answer on the spot. If you like using cold calls/popsicle sticks and don’t create a norm of being able to pass, always build in a turn and talk prior to calling on students in this manner. That way, if the student doesn’t have an answer, they at least have an answer from their partner. If you see two students paired in a turn and talk on a topic you think they’ll struggle with, you can: a.) walk over to them, monitor the conversation and ask guiding questions, b.) partner them with another group that’s talking so they have access to clearer understanding from a student, or c.) don’t call on these students at this time but make sure you observe that they are listening when others share.**

As an educator, this is your chance to be intentional, not reactive. The questions you ask and the students you call on should be chosen with the same care you use to plan your lesson itself.

Here are some tips for choosing the right questions and the right voices for your debrief:

1. Ask questions that require evidence, not just a feeling. Skip questions like, “Did you like it?” or “Was that easy?” Ask, “What strategy did you use and why did you choose it?” or “What part of the problem gave you trouble and what did you do about it?” Feelings don’t move math thinking forward– reasoning does.
   

2. Use what you saw and heard and move away from a generic script. Those sticky notes you collected while circulating? Those observations you made when watching kids use their whiteboards? That conversation you kept track of during the lesson? This is where they earn their keep. “I noticed a few of you got stuck on the same step– let’s look at that together” is worth ten times more than a pre-written question that has nothing to do with what actually happened in the room today.
   

3. Plan for misconceptions, not just correct answers. Ahead of time, ask yourself: What’s the wrong turn students are likely to take with this concept? THIS IS GOLD. Have a question ready that brings up that misconception without embarrassing the student who made it. “I saw someone try this– let’s figure out a more efficient way together” normalizes mistakes as part of the math process.
   

4. Don’t always call on the raised hand. The eager hand shooting up first is often the student who already has it. Cold call, use popsicle sticks or even call on the partner who listened rather than the partner who explained (with a “pass” as an option or a turn & talk beforehand). This is how you find out what the rest of the room actually knows.
   

5. Give think time before anyone answers out loud. A silent count of five (yes, actually count it in your head, it feels longer than you think) gives every student (not just the fast processors) a chance to have something to say. Pair this with a turn and talk so students rehearse their answer before it’s put on the spot in front of the whole class.
   

6. Ask the room to respond. Instead of the teacher constantly confirming or correcting every answer, ask, “Who agrees and why?” or “Can someone add on to that?” or “Did anyone solve it a different way?” This shifts the math talk from teacher-to-student to student-to-student, which is where the real thinking lives.
   

7. End with a question students carry with them, not just a wrap-up statement. “Tonight, notice one place in your life where you use _______” or “Tomorrow, be ready to explain why _______ works” keeps the math alive after the debrief ends, instead of letting it close the door on the day’s thinking forever.

Choosing the right question and the right voice takes practice– you won’t get it perfect every time, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t a flawless script. It’s intention. It’s showing your students that what they did and thought during math time actually mattered enough to talk about, out loud, together.

We’ve collected all of the strong debrief questions we mentioned in this blog post and put it in this free printable resource that you can put in your teaching binder as a reference. Try using just one of the questions for an entire week and see how it goes. Add another the following week.

If you’re looking for a ready-made pack of student reflection pages that mirror a debrief and come with scaffolded options that you can hand to students at the end of math, check out our Math Reflection Prompts pack, our Group Reflection sheet, or our Self Reflection sheet that we use right in our classroom.

Finally, look for Part 3 of this Debrief Series, where we’ll dig into how to handle the debrief when time is short and you truly only have two minutes left.

Happy Debriefing!

🩷Kate & Emily

Although shortened attention spans might be the case due to changing culture and other factors, we recently reintroduced ourselves to a famous chart from Eric Jensen’s text, Teaching with the Brain in Mind, called “Guidelines for Direct Instruction of New Content.” This research-based chart gives the minutes students can attend instruction before beginning to lose focus.

We forgot how little time we had to capture students’ attention.

Our minutes are precious.

Let’s dig in a little deeper.

This chart doesn’t mean that in third grade you only have 8 minutes to get all of your teaching in and then you have to move on– after all, how would you fill the rest of the 7 hours if you can only teach for 8 minutes?! This chart just gives you the information of when kids start to lose focus with new instruction and how the brain learns, so we have to get clever and crafty with how lessons are designed so that students can sustain their attention for longer and learning time can be maximized.

So, how can this be done?

One of the easiest ways to stretch attention is by embedding simple interactive structures into your lessons from the very first day of school. Keep reading for the full details on our favorite structures and how to implement them. You can also download this FREE teacher resource from our shop!

These routines require very little preparation, take only a few minutes, immediately shift the cognitive load from the teacher to the students AND reboot your students’ attention span so learning can last longer. Instead of listening for an entire lesson, students are constantly thinking, talking, writing, moving, and processing their learning. That’s how we can stretch our minutes into more!

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Why Students Shouldn’t Sit and Listen for Long Periods

In Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Eric Jensen explains that students’ attention spans are much shorter than many of us expect.

A common guideline is that direct instruction should last only about one minute per grade level (starting with 5 minutes at Kindergarten) before students are asked to actively process what they’ve learned.

That means:

• Kindergarten: about 5 minutes

• 1st Grade: about 6 minutes

• 2nd Grade: about 7 minutes

• 3rd Grade: about 8 minutes

• 4th Grade: about 9 minutes

• 5th Grade: about 10 minutes

After that, students benefit from opportunities to discuss, write, move, or apply their thinking before receiving more instruction.

Instead of talking for 20 minutes and hoping students stay engaged, teach for a few minutes, then pause for an interactive structure. These short breaks aren’t interruptions—they’re opportunities for students to strengthen learning while giving their brains a chance to process new information.

Why Interactive Structures Work

Interactive structures help students:

• Stay engaged throughout the lesson

• Process information more deeply

• Learn from classmates’ ideas

• Build confidence from sharing their thinking

• Practice academic language/vocabulary

• Increase participation from every student—not just the volunteers with raised hands

• Reduce teacher talk while increasing student thinking

When explicitly taught and practiced, these routines become classroom habits. We see that when our students practice them consistently from the beginning of the year, they become automatic for the rest of the year.

Here are some of our favorite interactive structures:

1. Turn and Talk

Best for: Quick processing, making predictions, explaining thinking, sharing ideas

Turn and Talk is one of the simplest structures you can teach, and yet it’s incredibly powerful.

How it works:

1. Pose a question or task.

2. Ask students to turn and talk to their partner.

3. Each student shares their ideas.

4. Bring the class back together.

Instead of asking one student to answer, every student gets to rehearse their thinking.

Example

“What strategy would you use to solve this problem? Turn and talk to your partner.”

Students explain their reasoning in a lower-risk environment before anyone shares with the whole class. Students that don’t have a strategy can listen to what their partner says. To increase listening skills, tell students they will have to share what their partner said if they get called.

Why it works

Speaking helps students organize their thoughts. It gives quieter students a chance to practice before speaking publicly. It also prepares every student with an answer so now you can pull popsicle sticks (aka picking randomly)– this helps hold students accountable to talk, share and always be prepared. Embedding turn and talks is a great opportunity to assess students’ thinking mid-lesson. You may also take the chance to call on a student that doesn’t feel particularly strong with the content if you know they had a great sharing opportunity with a partner.

What has to be set up ahead of time

Students have to know who their partner is (consider using these partner cards) or who they must talk to depending on where they’re sitting, who to talk to if their partner isn’t there/there’s no one nearby, the noise level they should be speaking at, about how much time they have to talk, how to turn their bodies to their partner, how to make eye contact, who goes first, how to respond, what to do if they’re stuck, and how to show their teacher they are done talking (when they face the front of the room again or give a thumbs up). Most importantly, name the routine and tell students WHY they’re using it (before you even begin modeling the steps).

2. Think-Pair-Share

Best for: Deeper thinking and discussion

Think-Pair-Share simply adds an important first step before students begin talking.

How it works

1. Ask a question or give a task.

2. Give silent think time.

3. Give a signal for students to discuss with a partner.

4. Invite students to share with the class.

The silent thinking time often makes all the difference– it does take a few moments longer than turn and talk though. Students have an opportunity to formulate ideas instead of immediately relying on their partner.

Example

“We are going to Think-Pair-Share what you think the character is feeling and how you know.”

What has to be set up ahead of time

Actually use a timer. Even 20–30 seconds of quiet thinking dramatically improves discussion quality, however it prevents you from going over.

Follow the steps from turn and talk to teach this routine.

3. Think-Jot

Best for: Reflection, writing, individual accountability

Some students need to write before they speak. All students need practice writing. Think-Jot slows the thinking down just enough for every learner to participate. It also gives the teacher a clear way to assess student learning mid-lesson.

How it works

1. Ask a question or pose a task.

2. Students think silently.

3. Students jot their ideas on paper, whiteboards, or sticky notes.

4. Optional: share with a partner or the class.

Example

“I want you to think-jot this question: When was a time you wished someone was kind to you?”

Why it works

Every student becomes accountable because everyone has something written. Instead of hearing: “I forgot.” You see what they wrote. It makes it even easier for students to share their thinking because they already wrote it down!

What has to be set up ahead of time

Follow the steps of turn and talk but explicitly teach and model the writing component. Make sure your class is set up for think-jots: How will you ensure that they have something to write on and write with every time? If you require whiteboards and markers for math, then think-jots can easily be embedded. If students come to ELA empty-handed (no journals, folders or pencils), will you have writing utensils and sticky notes available? Passing these out each time will take up time. Will you require that students bring a pencil and sticky note pack each time? Will they bring their journal and pencil each time? Will think-jots only be utilized at their desks where they have access to these materials?

Students will have to learn how quickly they will need to write, the spacing, size and handwriting necessary, whether they have to write in complete sentences or not, what to do when they’re done, what to do if they get stuck, and what to do and how to hold their sticky note, journal, pencil, whiteboard or markers while you’re teaching if they’re not writing.

4. Show Me with Whiteboards

Best for: Drawing models, writing short answers, vocabulary words, equations, formative assessment of the entire class

This may be one of the fastest ways to check for understanding. Instead of asking, “Does everyone get it?” You actually see every student’s thinking.

How it works

1. Ask one question or give one task.

2. Students solve it independently.

3. Everyone holds up their whiteboard at the same time (this needs a signal like “Show me!”)

4. Quickly scan responses.

5. Adjust instruction as needed.

Why it works

• Instant feedback

• Every student participates

• Students stay accountable

• Teachers catch misconceptions immediately

What has to be set up ahead of time

Explicitly teach and model this routine, set up your teaching time so students have materials available to them, teach your signal or cue (“Show me in 3-2-1” or “1-2-3 Show me” or “Turn your boards and show me”), how quickly they will need to write, the spacing, size and handwriting necessary for your to see their whiteboard from a distance, what to do if they’re stuck, how long to hold their whiteboard up or what your signal is for putting their whiteboards down, whether they erase right away or wait for you to tell them to erase, and what to do with their materials while you’re teaching.

5. Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up

Best for: Movement and partner discussions

Sometimes students simply need to move. This structure gets students out of their seats while still keeping learning at the center.

How it works

1. Students stand.

2. Put one hand up.

3. Walk until they find another student with a hand raised.

4. High five that person, pair together and put their hand down.

5. Complete the discussion prompt.

6. Repeat with a new partner if desired.

Why it works

Teachers can easily see who is still walking around the room with their hand up trying to find a partner. Movement increases energy while allowing students to hear multiple perspectives. It’s especially effective after longer periods of instruction.

What has to be set up ahead of time

Name it and tell the kids why you’ll have them do this. Model how quickly they have to find a partner, how to walk around with their hand raised (high up, not down low), how to high five and lower than hand once they find their partner, how to stand and look at their partner when talking, who goes first, what to do when they’re stuck, how to show the teacher they’re done talking or what to talk about when they’ve finished talking about what they were tasked with, and how to move back to their seats when it’s over.

6. Rally Robin

Best for: Brainstorming, reviewing, short one-answer responses

Rally Robin is a fast-paced partner activity where students alternate responses.

How it works

Partner A shares one idea.

Partner B shares another.

Continue alternating until time runs out.

Example prompts

• Name as many multiplication facts as you can.

• List different ways to solve the problem.

• Name shapes with parallel lines.

• List adjectives describing the character.

• Brainstorm ways communities help one another.

Every student contributes equally.

No one dominates the conversation.

Why Start These on Day One?

If we wait until October or November to introduce these interactive structures or discussion routines, then students have already learned to expect the teacher to do most of the talking. We’ve solidified that students’ ideas and thinking are not as valuable as our own. We’ve also paved the way for learned helplessness and lack of ownership by doing all of the instruction on our own. It’s likely that we would also see negative behaviors arise due a lack of interactive structures embedded within our lessons.

Instead, imagine if students walked into your classroom on the very first day and learned:

• We all think.

• We all talk.

• We all write.

• We all participate.

And really, it all came from a piece of research that said we have MINUTES to sustain students’ attention.

As the weeks go on, you won’t need to explain the routines anymore. You’ll simply say:

“Turn and Talk.”

“Think-Jot.”

“Show me on your whiteboards…”

“Stand up, hand up, pair up…”

Students already know what to do, allowing you to spend more time teaching and less time managing.

Small Structures. Big Impact.

None of these strategies require fancy materials.

None take extensive planning.

Most take 30 seconds to two minutes to do within your lesson.

If you’re finding that you’re doing most of the talking during a lesson, don’t completely redesign your teaching.

Start by adding one interactive structure every 7–10 minutes (depending on your grade level). We like to teach 1-2 each week right from the first day of school (Turn and Talks or Think-Jots tend to be the go to on day 1).

You’ll likely notice students staying engaged longer, participating more often, and retaining more of what you teach.

Sometimes the biggest instructional shifts begin with the simplest routines.

Happy structuring!

🩷Kate & Emily

“I got 12.”

“Me too.”

And then... silence.

We’ve all been there.

The reality is that meaningful mathematical discussions don’t just happen because we ask students to talk. Just as we teach students how to solve equations, read closely, or write complete sentences, we have to explicitly teach how to discuss mathematics.

That’s where Accountable Math Talk comes in.

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Why Accountable Talk Matters in Math

You’ve probably heard the term “accountable talk” and/or “math talk” and they’re essentially the same– accountable talk may travel across content areas (you may consider using accountable talk in Social Studies, Science, ELA). Math talk keeps things specific to math. We kind of combined the two, but we’ll use any labels with students. The choice is yours!

When students engage in accountable talk, they aren’t just sharing answers. They’re listening to one another, building on ideas, asking questions, defending their thinking, and respectfully disagreeing when they see things differently.

These conversations help students:

• Develop deeper conceptual understanding

• Learn from multiple strategies and perspectives

• Build confidence in sharing their thinking

• Practice mathematical reasoning and justification

• Become active participants instead of passive listeners

Most importantly, accountable talk shifts the cognitive work to students. Instead of the teacher doing all the explaining, it supports the students in making sense of mathematics together. In the book, Promoting Rich Discussions in Mathematics Classrooms, the authors talk about how accountable talk moves help “place the intellectual heavy lifting and balance of talk toward students,” shifting classroom conversation away from teacher-directed recitation and toward genuine discussions where mathematical understanding is built collaboratively rather than simply delivered.

And that’s exactly what we want for our students!

Start During the First Week of School

One of the mistakes that’s easy to make is waiting until students are comfortable with math content before introducing discussion expectations.

We do the opposite.

We begin introducing accountable talk sometimes the very first week of school. We may not explicitly teach each sentence stem and start practicing right away during the first week of school, but when we begin talking about growth mindset and setting our math norms, we expose kids to our accountable talk and expectations of their discussions.

Our thinking is, if we wait until October or November to teach students how to talk mathematically, we’ve already missed months of opportunities for rich conversations.

We begin building these habits through explicit instruction, modeling, consistent practice, and lots and lots of excitement about using sentence stems. We’ve also gotten less complicated as time went on.

Keep It Simple: Choose Five Sentence Stems Total

One of the best pieces of advice we can give teachers is this: You don’t need twenty sentence stems.

Too many options often overwhelm students. In fact, too many options overwhelm us! With too many options, we found that WE struggle to remember to use the right sentence stem when opportunities arise.

Start by choosing five sentence stems that fit your teaching style and classroom culture. If you can’t see yourself using it, the students won’t use it either. In our Accountable Math Talk poster pack, we offer over 25 options that may fit your style.

Here are our favorites:

• I agree with _____ because...

• I respectfully disagree with _____ because...

• I sort of agree with _____ because...

• Tell me more about...

• I would like to add on to what _____ said...

These stems provide students with everything they need to begin engaging in productive mathematical conversations.

Teach One Sentence Stem Each Week

Go slow. Rather than introducing all five at once, focus on teaching just one sentence stem each week. If you’re up for the challenge or feel like some of the sentence stems work better being combined in the same week (like agree, disagree or sort of agree sentence stems), by all means, teach them! Experiment, reflect, improve— do what works best for you! Whether you’re teaching one or three sentence stems though, choose them based on what you think you’ll use in math lessons or connect them to the picture books you using to build growth mindset.

Here’s a simple routine you can use:

Monday: Explicitly Teach It

Introduce the sentence stem by writing it on the board, on an anchor chart, print it on a poster to hang up in front of the students, write it on a sentence stem, or anything that works for you! Discuss when it would be appropriate to use the sentence stem and talk about why mathematicians use language like this when discussing ideas. Begin using it more often in your own language if possible.

Tuesday: Interactive Modeling

Model the sentence stem and how to properly use it– In order to do this, you’ll have to think through a math situation ahead of time. Next, choose a student to practice using the sentence stem with. You may consider using the same context before or a new one. Allow the whole group to provide feedback. Then, partner students up, provide a new math context, and allow them to practice using the sentence stem with each other. You may consider sharing both examples and non-examples (although if we have an overly silly group that year, we tend to avoid non-examples). Let students identify when the sentence stem was used effectively.

Wednesday–Friday: Practice and Goal Setting

Challenge students to use the sentence stem throughout the week whenever the opportunity arises. The goal is for students to develop the habit of using the language independently. Keep reading for ways to motivate students to use sentence stems below.

By the end of five weeks, you’ll have taught five powerful discussion tools that students can use all year long. We encourage you to challenge students to utilize these sentence stems in other content areas too! If you departmentalize, you may want to either share your accountable talk sentence stems with teachers and/or come up with group accountable talk sentence stems with your team.

Ways to Motivate Students to Use Sentence Stems

Like any new skill, students need encouragement while building the habit.

Here are some simple ways to increase engagement:

• Keep a Class Tally – Every time a student uses the focus sentence stem correctly, add a tally mark to the board. Students love watching the count grow throughout the day.

• Beat Yesterday’s Record – Challenge the class to use the sentence stem more times than they did the previous day. Be careful that this method may encourage students to use accountable talk incorrectly.

• Discussion Goals – Set a class goal ahead of time such as: “Let’s see if we can use our sentence stem 20 times during math today.”

• Partner Challenges – Challenge partners to each use the sentence stem at least once during a discussion.

• Mystery Listener – Choose a mystery listener who is secretly looking for classmates using the sentence stem effectively. At the end of the lesson, they share what they noticed.

• Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate – Get excited! Praise students when they use the sentence stem! Make it a big deal! Instead of generic praise, highlight exactly what students did well: “I noticed Olivia used ‘Tell me more about...’ to get her partner to explain their strategy in greater detail.” Students quickly learn what successful accountable talk sounds like.

• Hold Students Accountable During the Debrief – One of the easiest ways to ensure sentence stems become part of your classroom culture is to revisit them during your lesson debrief or when checking in with them after a math activity. At the end of math, ask questions such as:

  • Who used our sentence stem today?

  • When did you hear someone use it?

  • How did it help the conversation?

  • Which stem felt easiest to use?

  • Which stem do we still need to practice?

You can even ask students to give examples: “Who can tell us how they used ‘I respectfully disagree with...’ during today’s discussion?” When students know you’ll be reflecting on the sentence stem at the end of the lesson, they’re much more likely to use it during the lesson.

Small Steps Lead to Big Changes

Building a classroom where students engage in meaningful mathematical discussions doesn’t happen overnight. It happens one sentence stem at a time. In fact, our accountable talk practice didn’t start out great– we experimented, reflected and improved each year! We also had to learn to TRUST students to follow through on using accountable talk– sometimes it’s really hard to give up the reins.

And that’s where some of the most powerful math learning happens– when we put the learning, producing, and work on the students.

If you’re looking for ready-to-use Accountable Math Talk posters, student mini-charts, and a list of discussion sentence stems to choose from, we’ve created a resource that makes implementation simpler. Choose the stems that work for your classroom, introduce one each week, and watch your students’ mathematical conversations transform.

Click here or on the image below:

Happy talking!

🩷Kate & Emily

Here’s what’s great about this protocol:

• It can work at multiple grade levels,

• It’s “low-floor high-ceiling” (meaning everyone can get started and no one hits a dead end)

• There are many ways to differentiate and scaffold,

• And kids LOVE it!

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Other than the initial set up, this protocol is super easy for the teacher to manage during— the kids do all the work! During Create, Solve, Score, all students were engaged, excited, problem-solving, communicating and collaborating about math. The happy classroom “buzz” we love to see and hear!

We’ll explain how you can try out the same routine in this blog post, but we’ve made sure to include the slides we used with students at the end of this blog so you can use them with our students, but they’re also helpful if you are more of a visual person and want to see the protocol through that lens.

As you’re reading through the steps below, please be aware that the steps included are specific to the protocol– a lot of the “pre-work” that must be done even prior to this protocol includes:

• establishing, modeling and practicing group expectations,

• setting up a math structure and movement in the room that students can follow,

• establishing and practicing math norms,

• explaining, modeling and building growth mindset,

• creating a student-friendly 3-point rubric,

• and explaining, modeling and practicing accountable math talk.

These are important parts of our math classroom that have been done all year long but would be too much to include in detail within our steps below. If you’re interested in learning more about any of these practices, comment and we’ll be sure to share more blog posts about each one!

PRE-WORK:

Start by telling the students that you’ll be doing a new protocol called “Create, Solve, Score.” Let them know there will be three phases and explain that students will be working in duos or trios. At this point in the year, our students do not ask if they can choose their team, because they know that we create teams based on what will best support student learning and growth. We have had that conversation all year long, and we make it very clear that math groups are formed strategically based on which groupings will be most beneficial for students.

PHASE 1- CREATE (team)

Students work in a team here. Explain to students that once they get into their teams, they will work together to create a word problem with the following criteria:

• It must be a two step problem,

• school appropriate,

• and it must contain math we have learned this year.

Some students are advanced and want to get into dividing decimals, which is not even a standard for fourth graders, and although this is awesome, it can’t be used for this protocol.

Remind students of the group norms and accountable talk protocols. Next, teams are given a planning sheet in which they write the criteria. The automatic criteria we use every time is that it must be a word problem, but we also add things specific to what we want students to do at the time. Examples of additional criteria are statements like “must be two-steps” or “must have decimals” or “must be multi-digit addition.” The criteria can change each time the protocol is done because it’s dependent on what you’d like students to work on. The criteria can also change based on your specific group of students (e.g. easier vs. more complex skills)-- not everyone needs to have the same criteria.

After establishing criteria, students brainstorm, and begin writing their word problem. If you weren’t able to run a lap and get to each group (maybe one group needed a lot more support than others), this moment becomes your first checkpoint– students cannot receive a sheet for their answer key until you’ve looked over the word problem they’ve created. This checkpoint can be as in-depth or surface level as you’d like– you may just do a quick glance to make sure the criteria is included, or you may read through the word problem and solve to make sure it makes sense and can be used. If the word problem is teacher approved, you can then hand them a second sheet so they can create an answer key to the problem.

If you choose to quickly glance through the word problem, then once students finish creating their answer key, this becomes your second checkpoint– you can now check BOTH the word problem and answer key for reasonableness, that it is mathematically sound, and follows the criteria. If the word problem fails to meet your expectations, feedback is given and students go back to the drawing board.

When students receive the “thumbs up” from the teacher, they can grab an anchor chart paper (we love large sticky note paper) and write their word problem. You must be explicit in your instructions here:

• Clear, neat handwriting

• Use pencil first and if there’s time, you can trace over with marker

• No random pictures (you’d be surprised at how many students draw sun, moon, basketballs that have nothing to do with the problem! We explain to students these are distractors for your audience and not allowed.)

• Decide if one person will do all the writing on your team or if the responsibility will be split, but if it’s split, the handwriting size and neatness needs to be similar

When the word problem has been written on the anchor chart, the team must choose a spot around the room that’s open and available to hang up their poster.

The timing for this phase can vary greatly, so we highly recommend that you:

• Use a large visual timer that all students can see

• Give whole-group guidance and warnings (“At this time, you should be finishing up your word problem and making your way to me/raising your hands” or “You have about three minutes left to complete your answer key”)

• Support groups that you notice are moving more slowly

After students have put their word problem/chart on the wall, go around and number each poster or you can assign students a number to write on their poster! There’s no right or wrong here, this is just so students can write what number poster they were at when they solved and recorded their work.

PHASE 2- SOLVE (independent)

This section is where the most troubleshooting was done when the protocol was first tested. The original intent was for groups to travel in their teams/trios/duos and solve the problems. We thought this would be a great opportunity for math conversations! What ended up happening though is that the more math-ready students in the groups were doing the bulk of the work, and/or students who were less math-ready (or even just more quiet) were becoming inactive participants. This called for stopping the students, telling them what was noticed, and making a pivot. If you anticipate this happening to you, explain that students who need more time to process or think deeply (this language is tied to our math norms) won’t get a chance to participate actively in this part of the protocol. Then, give everyone their own clipboard and recording sheet so that students can independently walk around to the posters and solve.

Moving to independent WORKED SO MUCH BETTER for us. If you prefer partnerships however, feel free to adapt this protocol back to what we thought would work the first time (we just won’t be doing this portion as partnerships ever again). Another added benefit of making this portion independent is that it becomes automatic differentiation. You see, some students were able to solve two word problems in the time allotted, where others were able to solve all seven. Students were able to work at their own pace, without feeling the pressure of keeping up with or slowing down for their group.

However you end up choosing to do this potion, after a student solved a problem from the posters, they would place their recording sheet in a folder next to the poster. Students then had to come see the teacher for a new recording sheet. WHY? This is our third potential checkpoint– it’s how you can keep track of how many problems students are completing. You can definitely keep a roster with checkmarks next to each student name but we kept it informal– after a bit of time, the students we noticed we hadn’t seen yet for a new recording sheet became our students who we checked in with, supported and/or refocused.

Phase 3- SCORE (team)

Once time is up (this varies depending on how much time you have, but we dedicate an entire math block to this, and it’s worth it!) students go back to their original poster with their team. They use the student created 3-point rubric and their answer key to score peer responses.

We have been using this rubric in math all year, so at this point it’s natural to them, however, this does take a little bit of set up. You can view our blog post about the 3-point rubric to learn how to do this in your classroom from the beginning of the school year, but if you haven’t set something like this up in your classroom, you can create a quick rubric with student-friendly language using AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.

Students go through the student responses one by one from the folders next to their posters. They work, again, as a team to have rich and deep discussions about what score the work should receive. The 3 point rubric we use is holistic, so they have to really ask themselves how much the student grasps the math concept. If they made an error or errors, is it a precision issue? Or does the student not understand the math concept here? Does the student know some, most or all of the math from the problem? Believe me, this took a lot of practice and prep work throughout the year, but at this point they are experts. If you’re using a rubric for the first time, you may want to have a more basic, explicit rubric that kids can use for this protocol (again, we recommend you use AI and make adjustments from there). Anything that gets kids thinking deeply about math, finding errors, analyzing work, having rich discussions is better than the procedural, quiet math many of us were used to growing up.

Once students have finished discussing and scoring the recording sheets, all student work is handed to the teacher. It is then quickly checked over and given back to the team. This part was a pleasant surprise when we first started– a few students did not agree with the grade given and wanted more of an explanation. This was the perfect time to get even more learning, math discussion and collaboration in– the team that disagreed was sent back to the poster they disagreed on and met the team that created that poster. Students would discuss why they scored the work the way they did. Out of six disagreements we had, five groups were able to explain and settle it on their own. For one group, I went over when they couldn’t come to an agreement and supported them on coming to a conclusion.

POST-PROTOCOL WORK:

We try to always conclude our whole-class protocols with a debrief. When first starting a new protocol with students we often ask about the protocol and protocol behaviors– how they felt about the protocol, things that went well, things that didn’t, things they would change, problems they had and how they problem-solved, etc. Later on, the focus of the debrief becomes on the math thinking– strategies used, commonalities between problems, representations students used to solve, which problems pushed their thinking the most and why, etc.

Whether we have time for a debrief or not, we always give a reflection sheet to students. We have two reflection sheets specific to Create, Solve, Score available to use in our shop (this also includes the planning page, answer key, gallery walk recording sheet, and editable slides):

Click here or on the image

We also have a pack of reflection sheets that can be used by singular students, partnerships or in groups:

Click here or on the image

Our free “Small Group Time” reflection sheet could also work too:

Click here or on the image

Potential scaffolds for this protocol:

• For students who are not yet as math-ready, it can be helpful to prepare a few posters in advance featuring work that matches their current skill level and allows them to participate confidently.

• Support students with sentence stems or a story idea to help their thinking. For example, “Write a story problem where students must find the difference between 80 and 6, and then multiply that answer by 2.”

• Give students the option of how many steps they would like to include in the word problem. If teaming the students heterogeneously (which we do), you can give one set of criteria because they will have support from their teams.

Finally, although we have this protocol up in our shop for purchase (planning sheets, answer key, reflection sheets, and editable Google Slides), we wanted to make sure our new subscribers got a little something for free. Enter your email below, click subscribe, and you’ll receive a free set of the Create, Solve, Score protocol Google Slides that you can use with students, as well as, a free set of accountable talk posters (printables for classroom walls & for students desks). Enjoy!

Happy creating, solving and scoring!

🩷Kate & Emily

Before long, you have a queue of students “waiting to be checked,” which means lost instructional time and too much downtime for many students.

Or, perhaps students submit their work (they don’t stand in line waiting to be checked), but then you’re left sorting through and grading each paper, now leaving you with not enough downtime after work and now you have to find a separate time to meet with students and let them know their errors.

How many times have you set up an activity, answered questions, set expectations for collaboration, got the group talking just to walk away and have kids go back to sitting quietly and working on their task separately with no talking except “Did you get [insert answer here]”?

You consistently feel like if you’re not hovering over students and leading the small group, the discussions immediately go to lackluster, surface level conversations.

While there are certainly times when parts of these things might be necessary, the traditional feedback routines where kids are lining up can be time-consuming and often lack the efficiency and impact of immediate, actionable feedback right in the moment that students need it.

And yes, small groups running effectively if you’re there helps with immediate, actionable feedback, but the reality of the classroom is that you have 20 other students that could use support with their math thinking and collaboration as well. You can’t stay with the same group forever.

So how do you make this all work?

We strongly believe in collaboration, maximizing every teaching and learning opportunity, and using error analysis to drive continuous improvement. (We all believe this, right?)

The challenge is putting it into practice in a productive, structured, and engaging way! We’ve got you covered though! There’s something you can do in your room, right now, with the following pedagogical value:

The protocol we are about to explain is easy to implement, differentiated, and hits on all of the points from above. The best part? The students LOVE doing it! Like, really love doing it! Ready to get started? Let’s go!

To start, create a four square with a circle in the center (as pictured above). You can use regular paper or larger paper. Place a problem in each corner, but you must face the problems out from the center— the two sets of problems will be upside down from each other (see image below).

We have built our students up to four multi-step word problems but we certainly didn’t start there! Start easy, with four calculation problems– do whatever you teach at your grade level! This could be single- or multi-digit addition or subtraction, single- or multi-digit multiplication or division, fraction addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, and more!

We started by writing four different double digit addition problems (example shown above). You could always cut out problems from workbooks or worksheets you’ve used in your classroom– leftover workbooks work great for this!

After we wrote out four different problems, we solved them ourselves (on separate paper), added up the four totals, and put a final total in the middle (on our paper and the students’ paper). Keep your separate paper as your answer key for when students work on the activity.

Prior to having students sit down and collaborate, there’s a bit of prep work we went through: we introduced and modeled the activity, reminded them of our math norms, group expectations (how to work together, looks like/sounds like), and pointed out our math talk posters as resources to use when speaking to each other.

At the beginning of the year, you can place students randomly in groups. This is great for building relationships and creating a strong class community. Since we started this at the end of the year, we had heterogeneous math groups already formed based on classroom data.

Once students are ready to play (we say “play” because they have so much fun with this, it feels like a game!), each student independently solves the problem in one corner of the four squares. When all students are finished, they add the answers from each problem together to find a sum (this is your total in the middle circle). We like to have all the students involved and have each student add up all four totals to compare to the sum in the middle.

If students’ answer matches the sum in the middle, great! If it doesn’t match, now is the pivot (and what we think is the greatest learning)! The team must then figure out where the error or errors lie. This is where conversation comes to life, and students have to work together to “solve the mystery” of why they didn’t get the sum.1

How do I teach this protocol to my students?

It sounds easy when we say “just do these things” but we want to break it down further. When it comes to students effectively and efficiently participating in an activity, the teacher model is probably the most important part. Even if you don’t have group expectations set, you haven’t introduced math talk (aka accountable talk), or you don’t even know what math norms are, an explicit teacher model will carry you through because you can build these things in!

Here’s a step by step routine that you can follow below:

TEACHER MODEL

1. Prepare your modeling by printing the teacher model sheet to use with a document camera, use your interactive whiteboard to display the teacher model sheet, or re-create the image below on an anchor chart. Use equations that your students can do at your grade level.

2. State the name of the routine and give a brief description to your students.

Say, “Today, we are going to learn a new routine for math called Sum It Up. Each time we do this, the routine will stay the same, but the problems will change.”

3. State the purpose.

Say, “You will be working together to solve math problems based on what we’ve been learning in class. Each of you will be in charge of solving one problem. Once each team member solves their problem, you add up the answer from each of your problem to arrive to one final sum. If your sum matches the one on your paper, you’re done! If it does not match, you will need to work together find your error(s).”

4. Describe the environment necessary for students to be successful. Include how their work area needs to look, what students should look like and sound like, the materials students will need, accountable talk to use, small group norms, what to do if there are questions, etc.

Say, “...Table top clear, use pencils, tools available over there, body sitting up on chair leaning toward middle, noise level at a table talk, use our accountable talk posters, math or small group norms, solve your own problem first but if the sum doesn’t match you can ask a peer for help, use a corner of your paper to solve for the sum...”

5. Explicitly model how a team might look like and sound like if they were completing the teacher model. Pretend that you are student 1, student 2, student 3 and student 4, one at a time, showing the work you would do for your problem. Include what student handwriting size and font should look like and how to use a part of your sheet to solve for the sum in the center.

6. Role play how a student might analyze to find an error, how they might ask for help, how to ask you to check their work, what to do when they are done, or problem solve a problem you might anticipate your students struggling with.

Is this only for small groups?

This protocol can be used for small group collaboration, but also as independent practice. (We love to use this for independent practice especially with our students who deeply understand math concepts, but struggle with precision.)

The independent teacher model page would look like this:

FAQs about Sum It Up

Question: What if I have more than 4 students in a group? Or what if I have less?

Answer: If there are more than 4 students in a group, you can split one of the sections into 2, and have 2 students work independently on the same question, and then compare answers. You can also have 2 students collaborate on the problem together and solve it as a duo.

If you have 2 students in a group, each student can solve 2 problems independently and collaborate to find the sum.

Question: What if my students are arguing in the group?

Answer: It is really important to establish group and discussion norms before doing any sort of collaborative activity. In addition, steps 5 and 6 of the teacher model shows how to explicitly teach/model what this protocol looks and sounds like. If arguments still happen, it’s time to regroup and re-establish the routine, adding in how to problem-solve the situation that just occurred. To keep the dignity of the student(s), deal with the problem at hand, but write yourself a note of what you witnessed. Before playing Sum It Up again, redo the routine and model the appropriate behavior you would want to see in a situation like that. Consider having the students problem-solve together.

Question: How do I know what questions to put on the 4-square?

Answer: Honestly, this is the most laborious part. We suggest starting with calculation only problems until students get comfortable with the protocol. If you use AI to create problems, BE SURE TO DOUBLE CHECK YOURSELF. We have encountered many times when AI was incorrect. If you want to use word problems, check your math program (if your district uses one), Google it, or make them up. Just an FYI– this can be very time consuming. You may consider saving the problems you create to use them next year. You can also download the ready to use, no prep bundles of Sum It Up if you are looking to do the protocol, but want to skip the prep. We recommend this avenue because creating these and vetting them took us a long time too. We have Sum It Up packs organized by standard. If you are interested in checking this out, here is the link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/the-coaching-classroom-collective

Question: Are there ways to differentiate this so all students can be successful?

Answer: Absolutely, and this is the best part! See below for a list of ideas, as well as an infographic if that’s more your jam.

For additional support / to support students that are less math ready:

• Partner students up (avoid pairing students with an extremely wide range of math readiness levels). Move into word problems when students are ready!

• Cut the problems out and put them on a larger poster (use the same layout/format as the worksheet). Have students use different colored pencils in each section. The workspace will be much bigger!

• Do two sections together as a small group. Guide students through and then have them do the other two sections with a partner or independently.

• Provide some team members with “clue cards” or graphic organizers in their corner of the paper to help them structure their steps.

• Create a “Check-In” Station: For teams that are consistently struggling, provide a “hint envelope” that contains the intermediate sum of just Problems 1 and 2. This allows them to narrow down where the error is without you simply telling them.

For enrichment / to challenge your students further:

• Have students create their own problems to use for the protocol!

• Give students a sum, and have them create 4 problems that add to that sum.

• Most of us have math workbooks and we never get to all the problems. Have students go through the workbook, choose problems, and create a “Sum It Up ” for other small groups to use.

• Multi-Modal Requirements: If a student finishes early (as your prompt suggests), require them to represent the problem differently:

  • Visual: Draw a model or diagram.

  • Writing: Write a “how-to” sentence for their teammates.

  • Aural: Tell a partner a new word problem but use the original numbers (or use harder numbers).

Happy Sum It Up adventuring!

🩷Kate & Emily

The end of the year…

Although it’s chaotic and crazy with so many activities and schedule changes, the end of the year is my JAM! Why? Do I like changing schedules, hot weather, and never ending spirit weeks? Gosh no! But what I love about this time of year is I feel the freedom to try new things I want to implement for the next year!

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Without the state test looming over my head, my classroom space becomes like a laboratory where we try new protocols and activities. I can use the class that already knows the routines, procedures, and expectations to vet any new ideas I want to implement for the following year. And guess what? Are there road blocks along the way, of course! But, at this point in the year we have already developed our growth mindset as a class, so it’s like a fun adventure. In fact, students LOVE finding my errors or telling me how I can improve… and I love it too, because hey! It takes a village.

One thing I really wanted to try last year was Universal Design of Learning projects and playlists. I wanted students to have more voice and choice than ever before, self direct their learning, and open up my time to have more one-on-one and small group instruction (this is so powerful!).

Here’s what I did:

• I smarted small.

• I read through “The Shift to Student-Led” by Caitlin Tucker and Katie Novak.

• I started understanding UDL and how to implement it.

I started with 4 basic components:

• Path of Learning,

• Practice Learning,

• Practice by Play,

• and Show what you learned.

Then, I created a slide deck in Canva and a recording sheet. The unit I decided to focus on was decimals. Here’s what I did:

Path–

Students have a choice on how to learn the content. The choices were to watch a learning video (like from YouTube), complete an EdPuzzle, watch a Zearn teaching lesson, or watch a Brainpop teaching video with a quiz and assignment. Students were instructed to choose at least two of the choices. Whatever they felt fit their learning the best.

Practice–

Students could choose from digital assignments and/or paper and pencil activities. Whatever they felt fit their learning the best.

Play–

Students had a variety of games they could choose (in a variety of levels) both digital and hands-on. So fun!

Show–

Students could demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways including: a video on Canva, Google slides presentation, a poster, Infographic, written reflection, or just a basic test/quiz.

This UDL process completely changed the end of the year for me. It became less daunting for both myself and my students– they had fun, I had fun, and we were both engaged in teaching & learning at a much higher rate than before! The best part for me? While students are engaged, I was able to pull more small groups and have individual conferences, more than I ever have before at the end of the year.

So here are two things we ask from you:

1. Let us know if you try this UDL process and tell us how it goes! We’re still learning too!

2. If you subscribe to our Substack, we will send you a FREE 1:1 conferencing pack from our shop that includes signs and sign up sheets in both color and black & white.

   Thanks for reading The Coaching Classroom Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts, support our work & a free item from our store!

Finally, for more detailed, step-by-step planning guidance, editable templates, student logs, feedback protocols and more, click here to access our UDL Playlist Planning Guide!

Happy creating and conferencing!

Kate & Emily

Imagine walking into your dentist’s office for a dental cleaning with the hygienist. She scrapes, flosses, polishes, asks if anything is bothering you, and has you rinse. She smiles, takes off your bib, creates space for you to leave and says “See you next time!” as she waves goodbye to you.

How do you feel? A little stunned? Incomplete? Questioning if that really happened or if you’re missing something? Is the cleaning really over?

You know it was about 30 minutes but why didn’t she say anything? She asked you if you thought anything was wrong but you’re not the expert. You think everything is good but what if she caught the start of something? There’s no way to know. She didn’t say anything!

Are you curious about the results and health of your teeth? Are you wondering if there’s anything you can improve or stop doing? Why didn’t the dentist come in? Are things that great that there are no notes? This must mean you can keep doing what you’re doing.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound familiar to you— hopefully you have a dental team that gives feedback, gives you the notes on what they’re seeing in your mouth, tells you what they did, why and how you can help with your daily habits.

Sometimes you might feel guilty after an appointment, like you should’ve or could’ve done more, sometimes you feel great, that everything you’ve been doing has been worth it.

Now imagine that a student has worked really hard the entire time during a part of your day, take for example, your math workshop time. They think they followed all of the directions, completed their must do’s, collaborated with their peers, participated in the lesson, finished their independent work, completed an exit ticket…

Suddenly, the teacher announces it’s time to clean up and line up for Specials.

The student thinks: Wait, is math over? Did time really go by that fast?

Anxiety begins building…

STUDENT A – Is the work good enough? What about the exit ticket that was turned in? I don’t always get feedback on that.. Is it right? I hope it’s right but I’m not sure. One part was really hard and I had to do a lot of trial and error…Uh oh, I don’t know if it’s good enough? What about that part that was super confusing that my partner couldn’t really help me on? When am I going to get help with that?

OR

STUDENT B – Oh no. I really wanted to share my great idea that I figured out in small groups. The teacher didn’t even get to see it! I think this strategy would really help a lot of people with solving their multi-digit multiplication. The teacher would love this! How will I be able to share this now? Math is over and we’re already lining up!

OR

STUDENT C – Well, at least that part of the day is done. I hate math, I never understand it, I just have to get through it. I was following when the teacher was teaching me, but it got confusing when I left her and I had to go do it on my own. At least I was able to get help on the independent work and my partners helped me at stations so I was able to get enough done. Luckily, we’re already lining up for Specials. Awesome! I got through the worst part of the day. I won’t have to think about math again until tomorrow.

In all of these scenarios, can you figure out what’s missing?

The Debrief. The Closure. The Wrap-Up.

When we participate in something, as human beings, we like to have those few minutes of a summary of what just happened, what’s going great, connections, and advice for the future.

At the dentist, we want to hear that our extra minutes of flossing have led to better gum health. If you flossed every day and the hygienist and dentist said nothing, you’d stop doing it. What’s the point of this added step if it’s not changing anything? If they let you know you’re starting to develop some cavities and they connect it to your sugar intake, it’ll get you to at least think about your night time candy habit (maybe not stop it).

The same goes for the humans in front of us. They need closure. They need the summary of the lesson that just happened and a clear answer to “What’s the point?” They need to be seen and now is a great time to really have them be seen as the mathematicians we want them to be.

As an educator, this is your PRIME TIME for making connections, addressing misconceptions, exemplifying strategies or specific student behavior, and giving students something to think more deeply about based on the things you saw and heard while taking laps and teaching.

But, sometimes we’re forced to skip our debrief time because we lose track of time or took too long with a particular group or student or part of the lesson. Perhaps Specials or Lunch or the Assembly sprung up on us and we have to hurry. We’ve all been there. A LOT.

Here are some tips for setting yourself up for success to always include your debrief time:

1. Have a daily schedule that works and delineate a clear debrief time. You might not write down a visible start and stop time for students to see (although this is helpful for keeping you on track especially when you have a student obsessed with time), but creating a schedule for yourself that includes a clear debrief time is a must. Treat this time as non-negotiable, not “extra if we get there.”

2. Invest in timers– several of them. Consider having a big one in the front of the room that sticks to your board, wall, etc., plus little ones around the room for small groups, easy access for you, etc. You may consider using timers several times throughout your lesson (e.g. math workshop’s timers might be set for the end of the launch, the end of the lesson, the end of small group time, the end of independent time, the start of debrief, the end of the entire block, etc.). Using timers may help point out the areas of our day we over-extend.

3. Set your phone timer to go off at the same time every day, about 10-15 minutes before the end of your math time (or any time!). That way, when your phone goes off, you know you have a couple minutes to wrap up what you’re doing, give a wrap up warning for the students, transition back to your common meeting area, and use 5-10 minutes to debrief the lesson and what was applied in groups and independently. If you’re someone who likes to do an exit ticket at the very end, consider setting that timer even sooner.

4. Choose your focus points or questions ahead of time. What do you want students to walk away with? It’s true that sometimes the best debriefs are the questions we come up with on the spot because it’s based on the real-time thinking and work of the students in front of us. This is easier to do though if you already have a game plan in mind– it’s easier to divert from a plan than come up with a plan in the moment. Start by connecting back to your lesson objective— what questions can you ask that most closely relate to the learning you wanted students to have by the end of the lesson?

5. Have a clear routine for your debrief. Name the parts of the instructional block, the structure of the lesson, etc. Students tend to move with more urgency when they know what’s coming next. Set expectations of how students should be leaving their stations (e.g. how to clean up), how you want students to move to the next space, the materials you want them to bring, the things you want them to think about as they move to this part of the day, where and how you’d like them to sit (e.g. at the rug, at their desks, in a circle, scattered around, etc.). Decide how you’ll signal to students to start the debrief routine. Will you use your chimes? Will you tell them to gather? Will the timer tell them to transition? Be clear on how much time students will have to get to their next place– model and practice that until it reaches your level of what you expect.

6. Use your resources and have them ready for the debrief. Carry sticky notes so you can jot down the misconception you want to address, an excellent habit you saw, or strategy you want to bring up during the debrief. Point to the anchor charts you created to remind students to interact with it. Pull up the slide that makes the strongest connection to what you want to talk about so you can provide an example and visual of what you’re talking about. Bring up the math vocabulary you discussed and reconnect at the end.

Sometimes the hardest part of the debrief is choosing the right questions to ask or the right thing we want students to think about. We also have to consider who answers our questions or provides statements– will the teacher do the talking or the students? Which student should answer or share their thoughts? Look for posts about scaffolding student responses to help answer this.

If you are looking for general questions or don’t know how to get started, check out the questions we’ve created in the math reflection sheets— they’re easy to pull from as a teacher during a debrief, or use them to have students reflect on their own learning! These reflection sheets work for individuals, partners, and groups. Since the content is what drives the rigor with these questions, they can be utilized from grades 3-12.

Check it out here!

Happy Debriefing!

Kate & Emily

We cannot even begin to explain the importance of anchor charts in our classrooms.

As interactive whiteboards (SMART Boards, Prometheans, Cleartouch, etc.) began filling classrooms, anchor charts seem to appear less and less. While these boards are amazing tools for teaching, modeling, and interacting with students (we love our ours!), the slides will eventually disappear.

• A daily schedule on a Google Slide? Gone after one click.

• A reminder of how to act at the rug? Gone after pressing that arrow.

• A list of common themes found in books? Gone too.

• A model of a multiplication strategy? Gone, gone gone.

This poses a major problem. Once the lesson is over, students still need a way to retrieve information independently… but that slide is gone.

You may be saying:
“My students don’t look at the anchor charts.”

Here’s the thing: that’s usually not a student issue — it’s a teacher issue.

A Real-Life Anecdote

Back in Emily’s early days of teaching, having a welcoming classroom was the number #1 goal at the start of the school year. To her, amongst other things, this meant having the walls filled with motivational, colorful posters, matching decor, matching bins, all kinds of signs on topics third graders would be learning that year. The kids walked in with big eyes, looking around— she hoped they were thinking, “This is going to be the best school year ever!”

When she added anchor charts, she drew them ahead of time, took her time and made them beautiful— colorful, with borders and different fonts, colored-in letters and hand-drawn images.

Mid-year though, her co-teacher gave feedback— the kids weren’t remembering things, they weren’t using resources around them, progress was slow and painful, they were learning helplessness by over-reliance on teachers to help answer their questions… something needed to change! The co-teacher pointed out that many of these beautiful posters were not made with the children, they didn’t even know what was on the walls.

They tested it out.

While the students were at lunch, the co-teacher took down one sign. It said, “Bee kind.” Here’s how the conversation went when kids arrived back to the classroom:

• Us: “Do you notice something missing?”

• Them: “No” and random guesses.

• Us: “Anything missing on THIS wall?”

• Them: “No” and random guesses.

• Us: “Like, right here in this area? Anything missing?”

• Them: “No” and random guesses.

• Two students: “Wasn’t there a sign there?”

• The rest of the kids: blank stares

• Us: “YES! What kind of sign? What did it look like? What did it say?”

• Us: continuing to give hints like “it was teal, it had a black border, it had two words on it”

• 1 student, one of the most observant in the group: “Did it say be happy or something like that?”

• Us: …

That next break, all of the signs came down. We started fresh in January and it felt great. We as teachers were less stimulated, the kids were less stimulated, every piece of the classroom was recreated together and learning took off.

We put kids in charge of changing signs and creating anchor charts, we removed pre-made signs so we could have more space to post MANY anchor charts at once instead of changing out the one spot for the most current anchor chart. Emily was able to start leaving school earlier instead of spending hours after work creating beautiful charts. Her trick became: draw a border and make a colorful title. The rest was built with the kids during the lesson.

When you walk into our classrooms at the beginning of the year now, the walls are empty. Not because we want an uninviting classroom, but because we are going to build the classroom together. Instead of covering the walls with decor just to “make it pretty,” we create a culture where our walls are filled with learning tools that support us all year long. This is OUR space, not MY (the teacher’s) space.

You can still put up colored bulletin board paper, borders, and signs for each individual student that says something like, “Amazing work coming soon!” or “[student name]’s beautiful work goes here!” so that students know these walls are going to be filled up with their learning, but the key is to make it about THEM, not you.

At the beginning of the year, we create classroom climate anchor charts together: procedures, expectations, transitions, stations, group work norms, independent work expectations, the difference in behavior between library and PE, and more.

Because students help create them, they actually reference them.

For example, at our a digital station, students have a simple anchor chart of expectations in words and with a matching image:
• Headphones on
• Voice level 0
• Check the board for the assignment

Simple. Clear. Effective.

So if students begin chatting at the station, we don’t need to stop instruction or lecture. We simply point to the chart. The expectation is already established.

Now let’s talk instructional anchor charts.

People often ask why we don’t laminate every chart and reuse them year after year. The answer is: every class is different. Also, do you really want to store all of those year after year? Not us (most of the time).

Every group of students has different needs, and we build our charts around the students sitting in front of us. As often as possible, we create the charts with students so they are part of the thinking process. An added bonus is that doing it with the students cuts down on the prep time needed before class starts.

Some charts can absolutely stay the same year after year: text structures, paired reading protocols, certain routines — these can get laminated and reused if you really want to cut down on time.

But many instructional charts, especially in math, shift depending on student misconceptions, strategies, and needs.

The real power of anchor charts is how they promote independence.

We are constantly referring to them throughout the day. Eventually, students begin doing the same. And then eventually, it becomes part of their thinking and habits so they don’t even need the anchor chart anymore.

Can’t remember the formula for area?
Don’t raise your hand.
Don’t ask a friend.
Look at the anchor chart.

When students ask questions that can be answered using a tool already in the room, simply point to the chart and let them do the thinking.

Over time, students stop relying on the teacher for every answer and start relying on themselves.

And honestly? That shift is huge.

As teachers, we naturally want to help. We want to answer every question because our intentions are good. But sometimes, without realizing it, we do the heavy lifting for students instead of reinforcing how to use the tools around them.

If you talk to someone who is really strong in a certain area, a lot of times when you really break it down, it’s because they can visualize it in their head. Anchor charts can be part of that visual key students need to learn. We are teaching kids how to think, and to do that we are making learning visible.

This took us a long time to learn.

But creating that independence not only protects the teacher’s time and energy — it transforms students into problem solvers. Instead of practicing learned helplessness, they begin practicing independent thinking.

And that is where the real learning happens!

The quick breakdown of why anchor charts are SO important:

1. They reduce cognitive load

2. They support conceptual understanding

3. They create retrieval opportunities

4. They promote independence

5. They support multiple representations

For more quick tips, follow us on social media:

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For easy to use/no prep resources visit our TPT store: The Coaching Classroom Collective

Happy anchor charting!

Kate & Emily

But here’s the thing, 1:1 conferencing can also become a major waste of student time—and even lead to learned helplessness—if it isn’t structured intentionally.

First, the time issue. Students waiting in line to meet with the teacher is lost learning time. If I spend about 3 minutes with a student and someone is fifth in line, that’s 15 minutes of doing nothing. That’s why it’s essential to teach a clear system from day one:

• Sign up if you need to see the teacher

• Return to your seat and continue working

• If you’re truly stuck, read a book or work on something else

We practice this routine in the first month of school until it becomes second nature. Early on, conferences are simple—getting to know students, their interests, and how they work best—while they practice staying engaged independently.

The second issue is learned helplessness. How often do we hear, “Can you check this?” My answer is usually no, not in that form. Conferences aren’t for general checking— they’re for specific questions or roadblocks. Students come prepared with what they need help on. This takes modeling and practice, but once they get it, it completely shifts ownership of learning back to them.

Of course, there are still moments for check-ins. When there’s a lull, pull up Google Classroom and review work, or go down your class list and bring students over for quick conferences.

When done intentionally, 1:1 conferencing doesn’t just support learning—it builds independence.

For a quick and easy sign with expectations and a matching sign up sheet to put on a clipboard— check out this link!

For a free stop sign to get students to pause before they interrupt, click here! In this freebie you’ll receive one sign for a sign holder AND a foldable sign you can print on cardstock and fold into a table tent. When students see this sign, they should pause, read it, and reflect on their problem-solving before they continue to you.

Happy conferencing!

Kate and Emily are basically the perfect example of “opposites attract” in education.

Kate is the loud, fast-talking, math-obsessed genius Energizer Bunny who’s been teaching for 20 years and somehow still has enough energy to run circles around everyone else. Former instructional coach, current teacher, deeply sarcastic, laughs hardest at her own jokes, and absolutely thrives in the spotlight. She knows exactly who she is and has zero interest in pretending otherwise. Take it or leave it.

Emily is the thoughtful, meticulous Type A counterpart who carefully processes everything before speaking. Also 15 years into education, but much more behind-the-scenes — designing, organizing, planning, making everything look polished and intentional. Former teacher, current instructional coach, deeply empathetic, very private, and genuinely worried about how everyone around her is feeling at all times. She doesn’t always catch sarcasm, but she will laugh harder than anyone else once she does.

Kate says the thing everyone else is thinking. Emily wonders if saying it hurt someone’s feelings.
Kate talks to everyone. Emily talks to you once you’ve earned access.
Kate brings the chaos. Emily color-codes the chaos.

Somehow it works perfectly.